Salem Witch Hangings Happened at Eerie Proctor's Ledge: Scholars

SALEM, MA - The exact spot where 19 accused witches were hanged over 300 years ago during the Salem Witch Trials has finally been confirmed by a group of scholars.

The researchers are confident the accused witches were executed at Proctor’s Ledge, a now city-owned wooded area, the Salem Award Foundation for Human Rights and Social Justice reported in a news release.

A group of scholars that call themselves the Gallows Hill Project used resources like court records and ground-penetrating radar to find out once and for all where the terror took place,

The discovery came as no surprise; in the early 19th century researcher Sidney Perley came to the same conclusion. These findings are exciting to history buffs because they finally back up Perley’s research with modern technology.

“Ground-penetrating radar and high-tech aerial photography shed new light on the topography of the site as it is today and as it was in 1692,” Professor Benjamin Ray of the University of Virginia said in the news release.

[Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]